Mexichem purchasing PolyOne PVC resin assets for $250 million in cash

AVON LAKE, OHIO — PolyOne Corp. said it agreed to sell its vinyl dispersion, blending and suspension resin assets to Mexichem SAB of Mexico City for $250 million in cash.

The sale is subject "to satisfaction of regulatory requirements and other customary closing conditions," the Avon Lake-based compounder and distributor said in a news release.

Carlos Manrique, managing director of Mexichem's chlorovinyl network, said a major attraction of the deal is PolyOne's technological development of made-to-measure solutions.

PolyOne's raft of products "will complement in a big way our product portfolio," Manrique said in a statement posted on the Mexican Stock Exchange Web site,

"This acquisition is consistent with [Mexichem's] strategy of downstream vertical integration, focusing on products that offer added value and in which Mexichem has only a small market share.

"The acquisition will strengthen Mexichem's position in the market thanks to the intrinsic competitive advantages of shale gas in the North American region and Mexichem's vertical integration."

PolyOne's resin assets are part of its Performance Products and Solutions business segment. They generated sales of $147 million in 2012, PolyOne said.

"Since we began our specialty transformation, we have divested commodity equity investments including Oxy Vinyls in 2007 and SunBelt in 2011 and reinvested the proceeds to accelerate the growth of our specialty offerings," said Stephen Newlin, chairman, president and CEO of PolyOne, in a statement. "As our only remaining business involved in the direct manufacture of base resins, we view the sale of our resin production assets as a natural and next step in the evolution of our portfolio."

The sale's impact to PolyOne 2013 earnings depends on several factors, including the timing of the transaction's close, the company said. It expects that dilution on an annualized basis will be about 22 cents per share.

Newline said that while the sale "is dilutive to earnings in the near term, we remain committed to our 2015 earnings target of $2.50 per share."

The sale to Mexichem follows another big deal for PolyOne which was finalized earlier this month — the company's $393 million purchase of Spartech Corp. That deal, which was first disclosed on Oct. 24, was completed on March 13.